Top Ways to Promote Your App for Free This Year

Apps are a great way for businesses to engage with their audience. Maybe your app is your business–like a gaming app or an app that keeps users organized. Maybe your app is a new feature for your business–like an app with a loyalty program or the capability to make appointments.

No matter what your app does, the way that you market it and promote it can make all the difference to its success. Just because the app has innovative features or a beautiful design does not automatically mean that it’s going to be a hit.

To be truly successful, your app needs to be marketed and promoted well so that you can receive the best return on investment. Depending on your industry and the audience that you’re targeting, different promotion strategies will work better than others.

The first step to building a strong strategy for promoting your app is deciding on your target audience. If you have a younger audience, it’s a good idea to take advantage of their cell phone usage. If you’re targeting an older audience, some more traditional promotional strategies like in-person sales may be more beneficial.

With technology constantly advancing and changing, it’s important to stay up-to-date on the latest trends and tools that are available to your business. Here are some of the top ways to promote your app for free this year.

1. Take Advantage of Social Media

Social media accounts are a great, free way to reach a large audience where they’re already browsing for hours every day. Depending on the people that you’re trying to reach, different social media platforms will be better than others.

In the past 4 or 5 years, the number of teens using Facebook has dropped 20%. Many of them now see it as a platform for their parents and older generations. In order to reach this audience more effectively, consider using more popular platforms like Snapchat, Instagram, and Youtube.

2. Encourage Users to Share Your App

Word of mouth is one of the most powerful free promotion techniques out there. No matter how good your marketing campaign is, consumers are always a little bit suspicious of you. Of course a company is going to say great things about their own product.

But, a recommendation from a friend or loved one can be the final push someone needs to download a new app. According to Digital Authority Partners, 77% of people are more likely to buy a product when they hear about it from a loved one.

To encourage word of mouth promotion, offer in-app incentives for users who share the app with their contacts. If your app has a loyalty program for your business, offer free points. If your app is a game or has in-app purchases, offer discounts and bonuses.

When a user shares your app, they tell their friends that they use the app regularly and love it enough to want the incentives. That will go a long way in promoting your app.

3. Create Video Content

When it comes to promoting your app, you need to take advantage of every form of promotional content. You should write blog posts and social media posts, post pictures of what the app looks like, and you should also make some promotional videos so people can see how the app works.

Mobile video content is becoming more and more popular in recent years. YouTube is more than just how-to videos and viral videos. It boasts 1.5 million logged-in users who spend more than an hour a day watching videos. Video content can be so informational and shareable, which makes it a great tool for promoting your app when done right.

4. Promote It In-Office

Sometimes, the only people who are going to use your app are people who visit your physical business. For instance, mobile apps are becoming increasingly popular with healthcare facilities. People who don’t go to your office/hospital are not going to need an app for it.

Typically, these apps offer services like creating appointments, sharing test results, or reminding people to come in for a flu shot. Marketing on social media and other websites is still important, but promoting the app in the office will also yield great results. People who are already in your office using your services will see that the app can offer additional convenience and be motivated to download it.

5. Use Re-Engagement Notifications

Just because your app has been downloaded doesn’t mean that the promotional stage is completed. There are a lot of users who download an app, briefly use it once, and then forget about it.

In order to prevent your app from being forgotten, use push notifications to remind your users to revisit the app. One retail business saw a 30% increase in traffic and a 20% increase in revenue after using push notifications to remind users of sales or items in their cart.

6. Prioritize SEO and ASO

Learning how to code your content to rank higher in web searches and app store searches is important if you want to get downloads. People will not go flipping through page after page of results to try and decide which app is better. Generally, people trust that the top few results are the best options available.

Ranking high in searches performed in an app store is important, but so is ranking high in search engine results. Search engine rankings are especially beneficial for local apps and apps for tech and travel.

There are a lot of free ways to promote your app online or in-person. The best thing that you can do is find out where your target audience gets their information and promote your app where they are already looking. And don’t forget to keep promoting even after the downloads start coming in.

This article is contributed by Julian Gnatenco @ JGBilling

Photos courtesy of us.fotolia.com